Building on the 2009 book, Academic Transformation: The Forces Reshaping Higher Education in Ontario, the authors start with the premise that the teacher-scholar ideal pursued by individual universities has led to a model for undergraduate education in Ontario that is financially unsustainable and does not provide the best possible education for undergraduate students. They draw from the literature on higher education reform and on recent policy initiatives in the United Kingdom, Australia, Europe and selected American states and Canadian provinces to show that options are available for providing high-quality education to an ever-expanding number of students at a more affordable cost to both students and governments.

Academic Reform explores ways to sharpen the universities’ focus on undergraduate teaching and to increase the number of students attending institutions that focus on undergraduate education, without diminishing Ontario’s ability to attract and retain university researchers of the highest calibre. The authors develop a model for teaching-oriented undergraduate institutions that would complement traditional research universities. They present options for provincial funding and regulation to encourage the creation of such institutions while supporting high-quality undergraduate teaching at existing universities.

At the heart of this splendid book is the conviction that undergraduate teaching and learning is the core of the contract between universities and society, but that the prevailing model of undergraduate education is no longer sustainable and the time for action is urgently now. Books on academic reform are generally long on diagnosis and short on prescription. Not this one. Academic Reform: Policy Options for Improving the Quality and Cost-effectiveness of Undergraduate Education in Ontario is well titled, for it builds both a case and a framework for action by government and universities on a compelling scholarly analysis of the factors and forces affecting higher education at home and abroad. In doing so, the authors draw upon their impressive academic and public-service experience, exhibiting throughout a passionate commitment to higher education. All of us who care about higher education are greatly in their debt. The best way to show it would be to engage with the challenge they set out.

Having spent much of my career advancing innovations, I’ve developed a familiarity with the difficulties of calling for change. Needed change is often delayed by resistive forces that probably, in general, protect us. But occasionally, an insightful few perceive an impending situation in which failure to change will be disastrous. And yet, the disaster often occurs despite the warning. In other cases, the predictions are heard with sufficient clarity and intensity that we do avoid harm and embark on a better course. Often, the difference between such success and failure lies in the quality of communication. Academic Reform: Policy Options for Improving the Quality and Cost-effectiveness of Undergraduate Education in Ontario is written with crystal clarity, catches one’s attention, and presents a powerful, compelling analysis of changes that are inevitable in Ontario and indeed throughout Canada and much of the world. I hope and believe that this solid, inspiring work will play a key role in advancing the long overdue improvements it so insightfully describes.